Israel Vs. Turkey: Condemnations And Insanity

In case you missed what happened, here's a great recap:

A motley crew of Turkish Islamists, European leftists and Israeli Arab leaders yesterday succeeded in provoking a bloody clash with Israeli forces that were enforcing an arms embargo against Hamas terrorists in Gaza. Six ships with more than 600 “peace activists” left Cyprus bound for Gaza but were intercepted by the Israeli Navy and special forces commandos before they could land in Gaza. The first five ships complied with Israeli forces, but the passengers aboard the sixth vessel, the Mavi Marmara, attacked Israeli commandos with steel poles, knives and pepper spray, provoking a battle that claimed at least nine lives.

According to an eyewitness account by a reporter:

Navy commandoes slid down to the vessel one by one, yet then the unexpected occurred: The passengers that awaited them on the deck pulled out bats, clubs, and slingshots with glass marbles, assaulting each soldier as he disembarked. The fighters were nabbed one by one and were beaten up badly, yet they attempted to fight back.

However, to their misfortune, they were only equipped with paintball rifles used to disperse minor protests, such as the ones held in Bilin. The paintballs obviously made no impression on the activists, who kept on beating the troops up and even attempted to wrest away their weapons.

One soldier who came to the aid of a comrade was captured by the rioters and sustained severe blows. The commandoes were equipped with handguns but were told they should only use them in the face of life-threatening situations. When they came down from the chopper, they kept on shouting to each other “don’t shoot, don’t shoot,” even though they sustained numerous blows.

Caught off-guard by the violent attacks of the “peace activists,” the Israeli commandos were compelled to use firearms in self-defense. Many of the passengers on board the Mavi Marmara were believed to be members of a Turkish Islamist charity organization, the Humanitarian Relief Fund, that has a long history of support for radical Islamist causes and deploying jihadists to Afghanistan, Bosnia and Chechnya. The Humanitarian Relief Fund is part of an umbrella group, the Union for Good, that was created by Hamas leaders in 2000 to aid fundraising for Hamas’s radical Islamist agenda. The U.S. government has designated the Union for Good as a terrorist organization.

The biggest surprise in all this is that the Israeli soldiers were so unprepared for violence. Really?? Strange, because the jihadists-turned-peace-activists released a video the day before pledging to use violence to provoke the Israeli Defense Force into making martyrs out of them. Oh, and ships going from Islamic nations to Israel are so often just so darned peaceful, aren't they? And sure enough, several dozen of these peace activists have now been determined to be Al Qaeda members. Go figure. I think this is just another case of Israel trying to defend itself while walking on eggshells, and coming off badly because of it. Cassy Fiano offers this analysis with which I agree completely:

Of course, the left will do anything they can to demonize Israel, so they will ignore and manipulate the facts of the situation. (Don’t call them anti-Semitic, though!) The fact is this: Israel’s actions were perfectly justified. The Gaza blockade was in effect, the flotilla knew this, and was intent on running the blockade after being told to turn back. IDF soldiers boarded the ship, and we all know what happened. What were they supposed to do? Let the ship run the blockade without knowing if there were weapons on board that could be smuggled to Palestinians and then used to kill innocent Israeli civilians? (And of course, several caches of weapons were found on board.) Once faced with violence on board, should they have just stood there and let themselves be slaughtered? Apparently, these are the only two options for Israelis from the left: let people smuggle whatever they want into Palestine, a country filled with backwards, bloodthirsty, homicidal maniacs intent on eradicating all Jews from the planet, or when confronted with violence, choose not to fight even in their own self-defense. (Again, don’t call them anti-Semitic though! They love Israel!) Because Israel chooses to not allow themselves to be annihilated, they are always the bad guys in the eyes of the left, no matter what. This case is just another example of that.

In my initial post about this incident, I wrote this:

As Israel's strongest ally, it is now time for the U.S. to step up and help them out. Will we? With Barack Obama in the White House, I'm not so sure.

Ahem:

I suppose the fact that the Obama administration waited for a whole day before condemning our ally should be considered good news. Then again, is any condemnation of one of our allies for defending itself against radical Islamic terrorists actually a good thing?

Not in my book.

As if this wasn't enough to worry about, we now see news that Iran has enough enriched uranium to make not one nuclear weapon, but two. Oh, and Syria is has also confessed to conducting nuclear weapons experiments, too. This happened at the mysterious facility that Israel took out a couple years ago.

Are things spinning out of control?

There's my two cents.


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VIDEO...
U.N. Security Council Condemns 'Acts'...
Ahmadinejad: 'Israeli commandos are wild dogs'...
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JERUSALEM POST News Feed...
REPORT: Lebanon fires on Israeli warplanes...
Turkish lawmakers urge govt to review Israel ties...
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